This afternoon (17th June) was very
warm and sunny
and I went to Peatlands Park, North Armagh. After seeing plenty of Large
Heaths,
a worn Peacock, 2 or 3 Speckled Woods, and plenty of Common Heath and
Grass Wave Moths at Mullenakill and Derryhubbert Bogs within the Park, I
tried
using pheromone lures for the Red-tipped Clearwing in Annagarriff (or
Derryhubbert) Fen.
After an unsuccessful siting of the
lure at 1 spot
roughly in the middle of the very small fen (which is completely
surrounded by
birch and willow woodland) at around 4 pm I moved it to a slightly more
sheltered spot (though it was not particualrly breezy) about 50 yards
away near
the north end, closest to more mature wood and and tied it to a very
small oak
tree. After spending 2 or 3 minutes in the nearby shady wood I came back
to the
lure and soon saw what appeared to be a Red-tipped Clearwing moth
(Synathedon
formicaeformis) flying close to, but not landing on it; at this stage I
could see the white tips to the antennae. After a short time it
disappeared, but
over the next 15 or 20 minutes it and/or another one appeared around the
same
lure and I got brief views through bincoculars, noting the red band
around the
abdomen. Eventually one landed on a birch tree and I was able to see the
Burgundy coloured patches on the wings. I was left in no doubt that it
was this
species.
This moth was first found (and
photographed) in
Northern Ireland by Robert Thompson at Brackagh Bog NNR near Portadown,
also in
North Armagh, on 6th July 1985; subsequently it was seen in 1990 (on 4
occasions between 11th June and 31st July), 1999, and in both 2008 and
2009,
when pheromone lures attracted a number in both years (I was lucky
enough to get
some Camcorder footage of the species in 2008). There was an unconfirmed
sighting at Mounstewart, Co. Down, in June 2008.
Red-tipped Clearwing by Dave Allen
Interestingly, for those "moth-ers"
using portable
generators - after switching the generator on about 11 pm at Brackagh
last
night, I found it was still going and hence the lamp still on after
about 7 am
this morning, around 8 hours later. This was a surprise as on all other
recent
mornings (this was the 10th nights trapping in the last 13 days) despite
usually
arriving at 7 am or earlier, it had always gone off. It may be due to
filling
the generator very full of petrol and switching it on somewhat later.
This may
sound like good news, but with the price of petrol (I calculate it may take
£4-£5 to run the generator for a night at this rate) it would be useful
to know
roughly the right amount to fill the generator with for it to run out
about
dawn during the brief summer nights, although of course during longer
spring and
autumn nights, 8 hours would not cover the whole night.
IAN RIPPEY 17.6.2010
